Cobbett’s Paper Against Gold: containing the History and Mystery of the Bank of England, the Funds, the Debt, the Sinking Fund, the Bank Stoppage, the lowering and raising of the value of Paper-Money; and shewing that Taxation, Pauperism, Poverty, Misery and Crimes have all increased,

Written while in Prison for Treasonous Libel.

Cobbett's Paper Against Gold: containing the History and Mystery of the Bank of England, the Funds, the Debt, the Sinking Fund, the Bank Stoppage, the lowering and raising of the value of Paper-Money; and shewing that Taxation, Pauperism, Poverty, Misery and Crimes have all increased, and ever must increase, with a Funding system


8vo. Original ¼-paper-backed gray boards. Printed by William Molineux . Published by William Cobbett. N.D. (1817) First Edition.

An English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist, William Cobbett gained a reputation as a rabble rouser, famed for his political (truncated) publications aimed at working class readers. He believed that reforming Parliament and abolishing the rotten boroughs would help to end the poverty of farm laborers, and he attacked the borough-mongers, sinecurists and "tax-eaters" relentlessly.

He was found guilty of treasonous libel on 15 June 1810 after objecting in his Weekly Political Register to the flogging at Ely of local militiamen by Hanoverians. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment in Newgate Prison. While in prison he wrote the pamphlet Paper against Gold, warning of the dangers of paper money, as well as many essays and letters. On his release a dinner was given in his honor in London, Attended by 600 people.

Head and heel of binding chipped; edges chipped; boards stained; foxing and toning to many pages; uncut. (Inventory #: 7149)